The city’s 24 most hazardous intersections last year were the scene of a whopping 2,878 crashes — nearly eight a day, despite city efforts to smooth the flow of traffic.

Topping the list obtained by The Post is the corner of 59th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan, at the foot of the 59th Street Bridge. The fender-bending crossroads saw a staggering 176 accidents in 1999.

The intersection is a motor vehicle battleground — cars, trucks and buses scramble to and from the bridge as pedestrians scurry from corner to corner.

“You hear tires screeching and the sound of metal crunching all the time,” said Brian Frankel, manager of the Lighting Center shop, which overlooks the intersection.

Police records show that the busy corner has grown far more dangerous than it was in 1998, when there were 103 smash-ups.

“It’s not surprising that that’s an incredibly dangerous location,” said John Kaehny of Transportation Alternatives, a pedestrian and cyclist watchdog group.

Kaehny said the corner of Second Avenue and 59th Street is a volatile mixture that combines motorists frustrated after sitting in bridge traffic with inadequate safety for pedestrians.

The good news is that last year’s traffic-hazard champ — Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn — inched down the list to second place after huge new signs were put up to better direct cars.

The plaza, a confusing traffic circle at the north end of Prospect Park, had 173 accidents in 1999, down from a whopping 281 the year before.

But the reduction in accidents at Grand Army Plaza was more than made up for by a rise in traffic mishaps in Manhattan.

Manhattan accounted for 15 of the city’s worst intersections last year, compared with six in 1998.

Along West 34th Street, intersections at Fifth, Seventh and Eighth avenues each had more than 100 crashes. And downtown, the approach to the Manhattan Bridge at Canal Street had 155 crashes.

Queens Boulevard continues to be a vexing safety problem, although the troublesome intersections change annually.

Cops reported 162 crashes at 59th Avenue. The intersection — third worst last year — wasn’t even on the list in 1998.

Mark Patterson, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said his agency is working to identify and fix problems at dangerous intersections.

Among the agency’s biggest initiatives are improvements along Queens Boulevard, Grand Army Plaza and Herald Square.

The intersection of Queens Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard — the city’s most dangerous in 1997 with 211 crashes — dropped from the list this year after DOT improvements.

Despite an aggressive crackdown on dangerous driving and improvements to some trouble spots, the number of intersections with 100 or more accidents nearly doubled last year to 22.

And even more troubling was the rise in traffic deaths — 419 last year, compared with 366 in 1998.

Pedestrian advocates like Kaehny accuse the city of putting traffic flow above safety.

“The city is inevitably creating an unsafe condition,” he said.

Patterson denied the charge.

“Our No. 1 concern is pedestrian safety,” he said. “But people have to learn to share the roads.”

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Danger Zones

The 24 most dangerous intersections in the city, according to the NYPD, with the number of accidents last year: